Silent Falcon solar-powered UAV gets launched

By Gene Ryan Briones on 08/10/2012 20:13 PDT

Silent Falcon UAS Technologies officially announced the Silent Falcon solar electric unmanned aerial system (UAS) at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Las Vegas early this week. Silent Falcon is the result of the company’s collaboration with Bye Aerospace to build a small tactical UAS that’s portable for long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The Silent Falcon uses thin film photo voltaic (TFPV) solar energy collection and lithium polymer batteries for energy storage, providing long-range flight endurance of up to 14 hours.

During night time, however, the solar-powered UAV can only fly up to six hours running on battery power. The Silent Falcon has a top speed of 112 km/h with an operational flying altitude from 100 feet. Other notable features include an electro-optical, infrared and laser pointer sensor, a silent and highly efficient propulsion system, a lightweight carbon fiber composite structure, and three interchangeable wing sizes to easily adapt to mission endurance requirements. The Silent Falcon is still in its preproduction phase, but the company says that it will be entering production sometime next year.

“After over two years of development, we are excited to bring this extraordinary sUAS to market. We believe we have introduced truly disruptive technological innovation to the sUAS market, and are proud to introduce Silent Falcon, the UAS that embodies the latest aerospace, electronic and sensor technologies to enable it to fly silent, fly longer and see more,” said John Brown, CEO of Silent Falcon UAS Technologies.